After Donald Trump easily beat Nikki Haley once again, this time on her home turf of South Carolina on Saturday, he declared he had “never seen the Republican Party so unified as it is right now.”
But in dueling conferences this weekend on opposite sides of the Potomac, it was clear that the Republican Party may never really be unified again. There were the Trump diehards gathered at the Conservative Political Action Conference in National Harbor, Maryland, to celebrate their candidate, and there were the Never Trump conservatives in downtown D.C. at the Principles First conference, holding, in effect, a begrudging rally for President Joe Biden.
There was none of the talk from last year, before the primaries began, of the two sides finding a way, a candidate, to bring the party together again. Trump is so far hitting between 50 and 60% in the primaries — enough to comfortably win the nomination but a warning sign that while his consistent base will show up, he may struggle to bring in literally anyone else.